Kilgore Trout

[Derek C. Maus]

On Wed, 12 Apr 2000, Andrew Foley wrote:

> As far as I'm aware, Vonnegut never used Kilgore Trout as a pseudonym.

I didn't mean to imply that it was *Vonnegut's* "non-de-plume" at any
point (other than of course in the "excerpts" from Trout's works that are
in the various books). It is still a psuedonym, though. Tanner's use of it
in CofW says something along the lines of (I don't have it in front of me,
regrettably): Vonnegut alludes to a number of forms of popular literature,
such as the novels of the science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout. 

Now it may be hair-splitting, but it seems impossible (or at least more
Borgesian than Tanner is prone to being) to "allude" to non-existent works
or writers. Even if he did mean Farmer, I don't think VENUS ON THE
HALF-SHELL came out until the mid-1970s, well after CITY OF WORDS was
published. I could see "Refer to" perhaps, but not allude. Vonnegut might
write a sentence like that about himself, but I don't think Tanner would
intentionally be that ontologically confusing.

I *know* he missed Varo's reality entirely, though. We're all entitled to
one now and then, though. The vast majority of CITY OF WORDS is still
light-years ahead of its time, even if it seems a little dated today.

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Derek C. Maus               |   "Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be
dmaus at email.unc.edu         |   human beings if you didn't have some 
UNC-CH, Dept. of English    |   pretty strong feelings about nuclear
http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  |   combat."  --Major Kong, DR. STRANGELOVE
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